The Rebooking Series - Part VII (January 4th 2010, TNA Impact)

Hello and welcome to the seventh edition of the rebooking series. With this one we’re going back to where the rebooking series started with us, TNA.

This time, however, instead of rebooking the Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe feud we’re rebooking the most important episode of television in TNA’s history – the January 4^th 2010 episode.

This episode is famous for the debut of Hulk Hogan and the ill-fated switch to Monday Night’s to go head-to-head with RAW.

Now personally I wouldn’t have gone to Monday Night’s, not at this point anyway. TNA was growing as a brand but it wasn’t ready to take on the worldwide phenomenon that is WWE.

Nevertheless this was something that Jonathon and I could not change but we did feel that even though the Monday Night experiment would probably have failed regardless we could have certainly produced a better episode in order to entice those fans that tuned in to see Hulk Hogan to stick around a while longer.

We have made a couple of tweaks to how things were at the time. We had Beer Money beating British Invasion in the three-way Tag Team Championship match at Turning Point 2009 to become TNA Tag Team Champions for a fourth time. They defended them at Final Resolution in a rematch while the Motor City Machine Guns took their place in the Feast or Fired Match. This was in order to bring the Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns brilliant Best-of-Five Series forward by half a year.

Also in the build-up to this night TNA have been advertising the episode like crazy. Hyping the debut of Hulk Hogan, the main event of AJ Styles defending his World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle, the first match in the best-of-five series for the Tag Team Championships and an Ultimate X match for the X-Division Championship.

So here we go, the January 4^th 2010 episode of Impact is about to be rebooked:

04/01/2010 TNA Impact (3 hours):

Mike Tenay and Taz open the show and hype Hulk Hogan’s debut followed by the Machine Guns vs. Beer Money and then the main event of AJ vs. Angle.

Tenay then says but they are going to kick the show off with a bang, showcasing a staple of TNA their X-Division in the X-Division’s signature match – Ultimate X. Tenay is about to explain the rules when he is interrupted by Jeff Jarrett’s music.

Jarrett makes his way to the ring, demanding a mic from ringside. Jarrett cuts a promo and talks about Hulk Hogan and his “cronies”, coming in to make a quick buck from the company that he built from the ground up. Jarrett says this is his wrestling company, and that it will always be his, no matter who manages to come in and turn Dixie Carter’s head. Jarrett says that come hell or high water, TNA will never be Hulk Hogan’s. He warns the crowd that he loves TNA and he will do anything to protect it.

Jarrett leaves the ring with Tenay and Taz slightly taken aback. Tenay recovers though and now gets to explain the rules of Ultimate X. After that the entrances are made and our first match of the night kicks off.

Match One: Amazing Red © vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Homicide vs. Jay Lethal in an Ultimate X Match for the TNA X-Division Championship

The match is full of high flying and is extremely spotty, as every Ultimate X match is. The finish comes when Kazarian and Homicide are battling in the centre of the structure which allows Red to climb over the top of them to grab the Championship.

Winner: Amazing Red retains his Championship (11:39)

We go backstage and see a limo pulling up, the door opens and Ric Flair gets out. The cameraman asks Flair what he is doing here. Flair responds by saying he had to be here to see tonight’s main event. Tonight is the first night he’ll get to see “The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles perform in the flesh. He says he has been following AJ’s career for years and cannot wait to see him take on Kurt Angle tonight in a match that Flair says is “the two best wrestlers on the planet right now facing off one-on-one for the richest prize in the business. What person in their right mind would miss that? Woooooo!”

We then get a Desmond Wolfe video package highlighting his arrival in TNA and his battles with Kurt Angle.

Match Two: Desmond Wolfe vs. Kiyoshi

Wolfe dominates the majority of the match until Eric Young interferes which gives Kiyoshi the upper hand. Wolfe overcomes this though and hits the Jawbreaker Lariat for the win.

Winner:  Desmond Wolfe via Jawbreaker Lariat (4:51)

Post-match Wolfe cuts a promo talking about how he came into TNA to make an impact and to do that he had to take on the biggest dog in the yard – Kurt Angle. And he did just that, he went toe-to-toe with one of the all-time greats and he came out of that with a newfound respect for Angle and, even more so, TNA. Wolfe says he feels blessed to be here and he will make sure to enjoy every minute of it.

We cut to backstage and see Hulk Hogan making his way through the backstage area. He shakes hands with all the guys in the back and comes to AJ Styles and Kurt Angle at the end, wishing them luck and saying he can’t wait to see their match tonight. Tenay and Taz hype that Hulk Hogan will be in a six-sided ring for the first time ever, next.

Eric Bischoff comes out and introduces “The one, the only, the Immortal Hulk Hogan!” Hogan performs his usual rhetoric and then talks about how much he respects TNA and how he’s here to help the brand grow. He wants to help change TNA for the better and, as a result, the wrestling business as a whole. Most of all though he is extremely excited to see tonight’s main event between AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. In addition, Hogan announces that regardless of who wins tonight he will announce their challenger for Genesis at the end of tonight’s main event.

Taz and Tenay put over Hogan and the segment before throwing to a graphic showing that up next we’ve got Knockout’s action with the Tag Team Championship’s on the line in a Tables Match.

Match Three: Sarita and Taylor Wilde © vs. Alissa Flash and Daffney in a Table’s Match for the Knockout’s Tag Team Championships

An exhilarating back and forth contest comes to a conclusion when Sarita jumps off the top rope in an attempt to hurricanrana Alissa Flash but Flash uses her power to turn it into a Buckle Bomb. She then drags the already set up table into the centre of the ring and hits a Kudo Driver through it to win the Tag Team Championships for her and Daffney.

Winners: Alissa Flash and Daffney to win the Knockout’s Tag Team Championships following a Kudo Driver (11:52)

After the post-match celebration we cut backstage where we see the Motor City Machine Guns talking to SoCal Val about the first match in their best of five series versus Beer Money for the World Tag Team Championships. Alex Shelley says they have never held the belts before but tonight heralds a new era in TNA and it will also herald a new era in the Guns Career, tonight they take the first step to finally becoming TNA Tag Team Champions.

We get a video hyping “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero.

Match Four: “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero vs. Jesse Neal

Pope and Neal go back and forth in the early goings but Pope eventually gets the upper hand and hits the D’Angelo Dinero Express to pick up the pinfall victory in relatively short order.

Winner:  “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero via DDE (2:49)

Post-match Pope cuts a promo stating he is destined for the top in TNA and when that happens, everyone will reap the rewards, he then stands with his hands in the air in the centre of the ring as money rains down all around him.

Tenay and Taz hype that we’ve seen the Knockout’s once tonight but get prepared to see them face off again as Tara defends the belt she won at Final Resolution against ODB and Awesome Kong.

Match Five: Tara © vs. Awesome Kong vs. ODB in a Three-Way Dance for the Knockout’s Championship

All three women have control of the match at various points and all showcase their talents. Eventually it comes down to ODB and Kong. ODB goes for the BAM! but gets flattened by Kong who then picks her up and hits the Implant Buster for the victory. Kong celebrates over ODB’s body whilst Tenay exclaims that Tara lost her championship without being pinned and Taz says that Kong is the first ever three time TNA Knockout’s Champion.

Winner: Awesome Kong via Implant Buster (9:22)

We cut backstage where Val is stood by with Beer Money. Beer Money cut a promo putting over their opponents this evening and says the tag team division in TNA is the best in the world and they are proud to represent that as the TNA World Tag Team Champions. Something they will still be after this best of five series comes to an end “Sorry about your damn luck.” Taz and Tenay throw to a break but hype that the Tag Team match is next.

Match Six: Beer Money (James Storm and Robert Roode) © vs. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) in Match One of a Best of Five Series for the TNA World Tag Team Championships

Both teams have a great showing in this match with both getting plenty of offence in and multiple near falls. Eventually Shelley dumps Roode to the outside and the Guns hit a number of tag team moves on Storm. They go for Made in Detroit (the sitout powerbomb/sliced bread combination) but Roode is up on the apron and pushes Shelley off the top rope to the outside. Storm then fights back against Sabin, manages to get out of the powerbomb, lands on his feet and nails Sabin with the Last Call Superkick. Sabin is spun round by that straight into a Double R Spinebuster from Roode. Roode and Storm then set Sabin up and hit him with the DWI (Drinking While Investing) for the pin and the win to go 1-0 up in the best of five series. Tenay and Taz recap the action putting over the stellar in-ring contest and then we cut to Storm and Roode celebrating with beer. Post-match they shake hands with the Guns.

Winners: Beer Money (James Storm and Robert Roode) via DWI (18:12)

Tenay and Taz throw to a Samoa Joe hype video which showcases his destruction of TNA from the start to the present day, although it is much more focused on his 2005-2008 work rather than later on. Tenay then says we’ll see the Samoan Submission Machine in action, next.

Match Seven: Brutus Magnus vs. Samoa Joe

Magnus gets in a bit of offence in order to establish that he is not completely inept but Joe dominates most of the match. The commentators describe the reasoning for this being that Magnus is a tag team specialist so wrestling in a singles match isn’t his strongest suit since he doesn’t do it very often and that Joe is an absolute machine. Joe hits the Muscle Buster and then locks in the Coquina Clutch for the submission victory

Winner: Samoa Joe via Coquina Clutch (6:04)

Joe leaves after destroying Magnus whilst Doug Williams tends to his beaten tag team partner. We cut back to the announce booth where Taz and Tenay hype as much as possible the ramifications of tonight’s main event which is coming up next. They roll through the tale of the tape and put over both men. AJ and Angle will make their entrances as soon as the commercial break comes to an end.

Camera’s follow Angle from backstage to the ring and then do the same for AJ. Once in the ring Borash makes the in-ring Championship announcements and we are ready to go.

Match Eight: AJ Styles © vs. Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

The match ends with a series of reversals when Angle goes for an Angle Slam but AJ rolls through and picks Angle straight up into the Stylesclash position. As AJ is trying to get his legs over though Angle uses that to pick the leg and transition through into the Anklelock. AJ rolls through though and the momentum takes Angle into the turnbuckle. When Angle turns around AJ goes for a Pele Kick but Angle catches the leg and locks in the Ankle Lock again. AJ gets to the ropes and Angle backs off at the insistence of the referee. When he comes back in though AJ tries to pick him up for the Stylesclash but his ankle is in too much pain, this allows Angle to transition out and hit the Angle Slam which gets a 2.9 count. Angle looks in disbelief that AJ kicked out and heads to the top rope, he goes for a moonsault but AJ rolls out of the way. Both men are down and the referee almost ends up counting them both down but they get back up at 9. AJ is out on his feet though and Angle goes for a clothesline, AJ ducks though and this time connects with the Pele Kick. He then picks Angle up and hits the Stylesclash before going to the top rope and hitting the Spiral Tap for the victory.

Winner: AJ Styles retains his TNA World Heavyweight Championship via Spiral Tap (24:57)

AJ is very emotional as he celebrates post-match. After a while Angle recovers and the pair shake hands and embrace before Angle raises AJ’s hand just as Hulk Hogan’s music hits. 

Hulk comes out and congratulates AJ Styles on retaining his Championship in “one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.” He then says he has a little surprise in store, and it is time to reveal the man who will challenge AJ Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Genesis in less than two weeks time. The reveal is… JEFF HARDY! 

Tenay and Taz put over how huge this is. Then Tenay says “folks, we’re out of time, we hope you enjoyed our first edition of Impact on Monday, we’ll see you again next week in our usual timeslot of 9/8c!”

Match Results:

1. Amazing Red © d. Christopher Daniels, Doug Williams, Frankie Kazarian, Homicide and Jay Lethal in an Ultimate X Match to retain the TNA X-Division Championship (11:39).
2. Desmond Wolfe d. Kiyoshi (4:51) when Wolfe used the Jawbreaker Lariat.
3. Alissa Flash and Daffney d. Sarita and Taylor Wilde © in a Tornado Tables Match to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship (11:52) when Flash used the Kudo Driver on Wilde.
4. “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero d. Jesse Neal (2:49) when he used the DDE.
5. Awesome Kong d. ODB and Tara © in a Three-Way to Dance to win the Knockouts Championship (9:22) when Kong used an Implant Buster on ODB.
6. Beer Money (James Storm and Robert Roode) © d. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) in Match One of the Best of Five Series for TNA World Tag Team Championships (18:12) when Roode pinned Sabin following the DWI.
7. Samoa Joe d. Brutus Magnus (6:04) when Joe used the Coquina Clutch to tap out Magnus.

8. AJ Styles d. Kurt Angle to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship (24:57) when Styles used the Spiral Tap.

So there we are, the rebooking of the January 4^th 2010 episode of Impact is complete. Hopefully this show would have been a bigger success both on the night and in the follow-up than it was in real life. Nevertheless I think the move to Monday Night’s was doomed regardless of the show but me and Jonathon both think this would have given them a better chance.

That being said, this article isn’t quite finished, there will be another rebooking series blog coming soon (probably in time for Money in the Bank, time allowing) that will focus on this era of TNA. It will just follow on from the above rebooked 4^th January show and here is a sneak peak of the start of that rebooking with the 11^th January Impact and the PPV that followed six days later, Genesis (yes, TNA really did do a huge three hour Impact on the 4^th January and followed it up with a PPV thirteen days later). Anyway, here’s your little preview:

11/01/2010 TNA Impact (Summary):

Four Corner Survival Match for #1 Contendership to the X-Division Title: Kazarian d. Homicide, Jay Lethal and (the debuting) Shannon Moore when Kaz hits the Flux Capacitor on Homicide for the win.

Samoa Joe enters the ring and says he is throwing out an open challenge for Genesis. Christopher Daniels comes out and accepts his challenge.

Sarita and Taylor Wilde are interviewed by SoCal Val backstage and they reveal that they get their rematch for the Tag Team Championship’s at Genesis.

Jeff Jarrett comes out and cuts a cryptic promo about testing the loyalty of the so-called “TNA” guys. He is interrupted by The Pope who comes out and challenges Jarrett to a match at Genesis since he is offended by the insinuation that just because he hasn’t been here for as long as Jeff that that somehow means he doesn’t love TNA. Jarrett accepts.

Desmond Wolfe d. Douglas Williams. Wolfe beats Williams after countering the Chaos Theory into a roll-up to pick up the victory.

Post-match Williams offers Wolfe a place in World Elite. Wolfe politely declines leading to Magnus and Williams beating Wolfe down until Kurt Angle make the save. Angle and Wolfe clear the ring and then show respect. Later in the show Tenay announces that Angle and Wolfe will team up at Genesis to take on British Invasion.

Beer Money cut a promo backstage talking about their victory last week. They refer to their match at Genesis and insist they’re going to make it 2-0 on Sunday. 1 away from making sure the gold stays around their waists, “Sorry, about your damn luck!”

Tara comes out and cuts a promo about not being the one pinned in the three way Knockouts match last week. She says she will get her rematch at Genesis and when it’s one-on-one, she will not lose.

The final segment is a contract signing for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match at Genesis. AJ and Jeff sit either side of your stereotypical contract signing table with Bischoff and Hogan mediating. AJ cuts a fired up babyface promo about “I’ve been here since day one. I’ve defended this company against people who just wanted to come in, coast by on their reputation and make a quick buck (looks at Hogan) and I know that’s you Jeff (turns to Hardy) because you’ve been here before”.

Jeff retorts saying he’s not here to do that, he’s here to entertain the people and make TNA the biggest wrestling company on the planet. “I’m the guy to take TNA to the next level. And AJ, you’re just upset that you weren’t.”

This infuriates AJ who flips the table and gets in Hardy’s face. Hogan pushes himself between them and AJ responds by pushing Hogan to the ground. He then backs off, raises the belt and leaves the ring as Mike Tenay yells “That’s all we’ve got time for. We’ll see you all on Sunday at Genesis. AJ, Hardy. First time ever!”

Genesis PPV:

1. Frankie Kazarian d. Amazing Red © to become the new X-Division Champion

Red tries to hit the Sunset Flip (Code Red) on Kazarian but Kaz manages to block it and hits the Fade to Black to pick up the win.

2. Alissa Flash and Daffney © d. Sarita and Taylor Wilde to retain the Knockout’s Tag Team Championships

Daffney hits Sarita with a Shining Wizard that knocks her out of the ring and allows herself and Flash to focus on Taylor. Eventually Daffney heads up top and hits a diving hurricanrana on Wilde before Flash hits the Air Raid Crash to get the pin and the win.

3. British Invasion (Brutus Magnus and Douglas Williams) w/ Eric Young d. Desmond Wolfe and Kurt Angle

EY is eventually ejected from ringside for interfering in the match. The contest is a hard fought one but eventually Magnus and Williams win because of their greater cohesion. Wolfe and Angle had a few episodes of miscommunication at important times in the match and eventually Williams hit the Chaos Theory on Angle to pick up the victory for his team. Post-match Angle tries to cheer Wolfe up who is clearly bitterly disappointed at the loss.

4. Samoa Joe d. Christopher Daniels

Joe picks up the win in a fairly long match clean following a Muscle Buster.

5. Awesome Kong © d. Tara to retain the TNA Knockouts Championship

Kong pins Tara clean following the Awesome Bomb.

6. “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero d. Jeff Jarrett

At several times during the match Jarrett seems to be punishing Pope just to test his resolve and see how much fight he has in him. Eventually Jarrett brings a guitar into the ring, he swings for Pope but Pope ducks and then hits the DDE for the win.

7. Beer Money (James Storm and Robert Roode) © d. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to go 2-0 up in the Best of Five Series for TNA World Tag Team Championships

Beer Money pick up the win when Storm pins Shelley with a roll-up after a long, hard fought encounter. Both teams shake hands once again after the match as a show of respect.

8. AJ Styles © vs. Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

The match goes fairly long and is comfortably older than twenty minutes when Jeff finally looks like he has the upper hand. He goes to the top rope and is in position for the Swanton (he is on the side closest to both the hard cam and the ramp) when Kazarian enters from the opposite corner distracting him. The referee goes over to stop Kazarian getting involved as Tenay and Taz sell the confusion of what Kazarian is doing out here. Then out of nowhere Beer Money come down the ramp and hit Jeff with a double beer bottle shot to the back of the head knocking Hardy off the top rope and into the ring. AJ has recovered by this point and he picks Jeff up before delivering the Styles Clash and the referee counts to three as AJ retains the World Heavyweight Championship. The newly aligned foursome (who will henceforth be referred to as Fortune) throw up their hand sign for Fortune and all four raise their respective title belts.

Hogan comes out to confront them but they attack him. Jarrett’s music hits and he comes out to make the save! Fortune back off but Jarrett immediately turns on Hogan and starts to beat him down before rolling him out of the ring with his foot. Jarrett then turns around so he is standing across the ring from Fortune. They then come closer together and have a big group hug as the PPV goes off the air with Tenay and Taz totally shocked.

And there we are, this blog has come to an end. We hope you enjoyed our rebooking of the 4^th January episode of Impact and afterwards the little preview for our next rebooking series article.

Any comments you have would be greatly appreciated. You can also follow me (@watadam20) and Jonathon (@JLAspey) on twitter. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you again next time for another rebooking series blog!